Purple Dance from Seb Farges on Vimeo.

There is not only Panasonic and Olympus releasing new m43 lenses at Photokina. We expect some news from Sigma, Schneider and others too. ThePhoBlographer (via Personal View) reports that “In a chat with SLR Magic today, the company confirmed to us that they are working on Anamorphic lenses (and not toys). They’re currently deciding on 1.33X, 1.5X, or 2X. They’re currently working on the idea of a 25mm f/3.2 1.35x or 35mm f/3.2 1.35x”.

As you know my friend Seb Farges made a lot of GH2 and anamorphic videos with the [shoplink 25880 ebay]Berthiot Hypergonard 1.75X (here on eBay)[/shoplink. The latest video can be seen here on top of this post.

P.S.: ThePhotoblographer also posted an article about the recommended Lenses for the Micro Four Thirds Mount Black Magic Cinema Camera

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Current SLRmagic lenses for Micro Four Thirds:
SLR Magic 12-36×50 ED Straight Spotting Scope lens (w/ hand grip) is now available on [shoplink 26994 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR magic 11mm f/1.4 lens you can preorder on [shoplink 22154 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Toy Lens 26mm f/1.4 lens on [shoplink 18603 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 MC lens on [shoplink 14881 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
Noktor SLRmagic 50mm on [shoplink 25691 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]

What you see on top is the front of the well known [shoplink 23568]Olympus E-P3[/shoplink] and this is more or less the same design you have to expect from the new E-PL5. I have been told the back of the camera still has a more [shoplink 23567]Olympus E-PL3[/shoplink] alike design and button layout. Basically what Olympus is going to do is to merge the best from the E-P3 and the E-Pl3 in one camera. Combine that with the [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] sensor and you have a nice package! 599 Euro/Dollars fro body and kit lens is what you have to pay for it.

P.S.: Despite every new generation of cameras that came out the E-PL1 is as usual the most sold PEN camera at Amazon US (Click here). It even sells mroe than the new Fuji X-E1. May we don’t need new PEN’s after all :)

Image via ePhotozine.

There is a new post from the Olympus-ePhotozine teaser story. Now they showed to us the first piece of the new E-PL5 cameras showing us the…Hot Shoe :)

Image via ePhotozine

Olympus likes to tease us :) The nice guys over at ePhotozine revealed a cryptic message saying “we’ve been testing these new Olympus PENs for the last couple of weeks and thought you’d want to see them. So here’s a sneak peak at the colours available. There is also a green PEN available, but we were unable to show it, due to it being chewed by someone in the office. Feedback from those who have used the PENs has been extremely positive, with some office members saying it’s the best PEN they’ve ever used. They said they particularly liked the colours compared to other pens they’ve used.”

Now back to some real homemade rumor:
We have been told that the 15mm f/8.0 is officially marked as “accessory” and not as part of the Zuiko lens line. It’s a body cap lens that has three modes, covered, up to 30cmm focus and up to infinity focus..

The patented Konica-Minolta 43mm f/1.4 lens design.

Egami spotted a patent with a surprising content! Konica Minolta patented the design of a 43mm f/1.4 Micro Four Thirds lens! The patent has been filled in 2011. Right now Konica-Minolta is not part of the (Micro-) Four Thirds group but this could change soon. Konica and Minolta have a long history of lens design for rangefinder cameras. Konica designed the [shoplink 33268 ebay]Hexanon M-mount Lens series (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. That includes the superb [shoplink 33269 ebay]Hexanon 50mm f/1.2 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. Minolta made the famous [shoplink 33270 ebay]Rokkor M-mount lens series (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. That includes for example the [shoplink 33271 ebay]40mm f/2.0 pancake (here on eBay)[/shoplink].

This is just to say that Konica-Minolta would add a very high value to the whole Micro Four Thirds system! So let’s hope this is one of those few patents that will make it into…reality :)

Here are the images of the 40mm lens (left) and 50mm Hexanon (right):

[shoplink 23567][/shoplink]
Image on top: The current [shoplink 23567]Olympus E-PL3[/shoplink].

As you already know the new E-PL5 (and E-PM3) will have the same [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] sensor. A source shared some more E-PL5 info. The camera plus 14-42mm kit lens will be priced at around 599 Euro/Dollars which is exactly the price of the current [shoplink 23567]Olympus E-PL3 (Click here to check)[/shoplink]. The source also “heard” that there will be a “large kit” version and it’s easy to guess that this will include the soon to come 15mm f/8.0 lens too! The major changes on the E-PL5 are the new sensor and a better ergonomy.

For my European colluegues: If you don’t care about getting the latest stuff and want to save some money there is a new bunch of refurbished PEN cameras at [shoplink 22691 ebay]Olympusmarket[/shoplink]. This includes for example:
[shoplink 33244 ebay]Olympus E-P3 with lens (CLick here to see the auction)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 33246 ebay]Olympus E-PL3 with lens (CLick here to see the auction)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 33245 ebay]Olympus E-PM1 with lens (CLick here to see the auction)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 33247 ebay]Olympus E-P2 with lens (CLick here to see the auction)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 33248 ebay]Olympus E-PL2 with lens (CLick here to see the auction)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 33249 ebay]Olympus E-PL1 with lens (CLick here to see the auction)[/shoplink].

P.S.: The E-PL1 is used by my friend Elena to tell you stories about the greek life (greekdiaries.com).
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Rumors classification explained (FT= FourThirds):
FT1=1-20% chance the rumor is correct
FT2=21-40% chance the rumor is correct
FT3=41-60% chance the rumor is correct
FT4=61-80% chance the rumor is correct
FT5=81-99% chance the rumor is correct

Image courtesy by the mysterious “nanoloop” :)

An anonymous source sent me this pic of what he claims to be the back of the new Olympus 15mm f/8.0 lens. As I told you before this is not a pinhole lens like the [shoplink 32795 ebay]SLRmagic m43 pinhole (here)[/shoplink]). This has  three lenses inside (you see them on the picture). Right now the smallest m43 lens is the [shoplink 16258]Panasonic 14mm[/shoplink] that is 2.06 cm thick and weights 55g. The “Plastic” and “supercheap” 15mm f/8.0 lens will be announced along the new PEN cameras. I am not sure yet but I think it will be part of the kit lens on the new E-PM3 and E-PL5. These are the specs:

Focal lenght: 15 mm (equivalent to 30 mm on a 35 mm camera) :
Aperture: F8 fixed
Dimensions :Max.dia.Ø56(2.2in.)× length 9 (0.4 in.) mm
Design: 3 groups, 3 lenses
Focus: 0.30 m (11.8 in.) to infinite. Manual Focusing (Three settings)
Weight: 22 g (0.8 oz.)

UPDATE: One more picture:

P.S: Similar in size is the famous [shoplink 32796 ebay]Leica Perara Triplet (you can find some of them here on eBay)[/shoplink].

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Something else: My friend Elena posted E-PL1 Pictures from a ‘panigiri’ (greekdiaries).